California

It's Alive!

erin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Director Chris Paine is back with a follow-up to his highly touted documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?, which celebrated the birth and mourned the death of the electric car. With help from a cast of unwavering advocates, Paine resurrects the vehicle in Revenge of the Electric Car.

"Losing Control" Melds Science and Romance

erin — Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

When describing their work, directors often talk about their need to reveal the truth. In her narrative feature Losing Control, scientist-turned-filmmaker, Valerie Weiss, shows us how both science and filmmaking involve the pursuit of truth.

Film Journal: Navigating the Uncertainty of Post-Production

KatieO — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

In my last film journal, I talked about the production of my feature independent film, Losing Control, a quirky, romantic comedy about a female scientist who wants proof that her boyfriend is “the one.” I discussed the trials of production—locations falling through, lack of sleep, and stretching an already

Film Journal: Survival Strategies During Production

cristina — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

In my last installment of my film journal, I wrote about the importance of pre-production for laying the groundwork for principal photography.

Film Journal: The Importance of Pre-Production

cristina — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600

In my first two installments of my Film Journal for The Independent, I wrote about the philosophy behind the $200,000 independent film. In this installment, I will talk about laying the groundwork to make our film at this budget, the period known as pre-production, and how the making of Losing Control reinforced the film's theme that faith is more valuable than proof.

10 Most Innovative Animation Programs

cristina — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Opportunities abound today for animators to contribute to film — both independent and mainstream — television, and games, but it is still a competitive field, and choosing the right animation program can mean the difference between pushing the animation envelope at studios such as Pixar and

Film Journal: The Making of an Independent Feature

michele — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:02:49 -0500

Filmmaker Valerie Weiss will share her experiences of financing, making, and marketing her first independent feature film Losing Control in this monthly film journal.

ITVS: Has This Key Funding Partner Lost its Way?

mike — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:32:55 -0600

In 2007, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick learned that her application for funding from the Independent Television Service (ITVS) had been accepted. Rudnick, a first-time director, had applied for ITVS funding to finance the completion of her documentary In the Family, a look at women who are aware they carry a genetic predisposition to breast or ovarian cancer.

The Doc Doctor's Anatomy of a Film: "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea"

mike — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:25:28 -0500

About this column: Many filmmakers ponder in anguish, How do other people—celebrated people—do it? Am I taking too long to make this documentary? Does everybody spend as much money as I am spending, or am I spending too little? And when filmmakers share their lessons learned in interviews in the glossy trade magazines, their tales seem to follow the arc of otherworldy heroes rather than real documentary makers, i.e. human beings like you and me. So each month, the Doc Doctor will go out into the world (this real world) of filmmakers who are successful and find out how they made it. The "Anatomy of a Film Column" is a chance to learn from filmmakers' hits and misses in real life examples. —Fernanda Rossi, story consultant a.k.a. the Documentary Doctor

Lost Angels

marla — Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 -0500

I could just be romanticizing it now that I’ve moved, but in New York all the filmmakers I knew seemed to be creating by any means necessary—from Super-8 shorts to animation on their laptops while fundraising for a summer-shoot, to staging readings for a work-in-progress in between compiling documentary footage.